What are some exercises to prevent my pinky from flying off the fretboard while doing scales, chords w/o it, or exercises??

...besides practicing/concentrating to keep it from doing so...specific exercises?

There's not really anything you can do as far as exercises go. It's just like you said: a matter of practice. Try some 4-finger chromatic runs and go slow. Really keep your fingers under control.

Quote by Geldin

Junior's usually at least a little terse, but he knows his stuff. I've always read his posts in a grouchy grandfather voice, a grouchy grandfather with a huge stiffy for alternate picking.Besides that, he's right this time. As usual.

Play any 2 octave scale (preferably, play lots of different scales which require different fingerings).

Now, you want to be playing at about 20bpm, whole notes. This is really really slow. If you can play these scales at this speed whilst keeping your pinky under control, great, move up the metronome's speed. Keep doing this until you find the speed at which you lose control over it. You now need to work at this speed until you can control that pinky, and don't speed up until you can. This is the only way i know of - because it's so slow you can actually fight your tendons' natural tendency to stick the pinky up.

Rubber band your pinky to your ring finger!Worked for me. And slow excercises. You don't need to start again from scratch, just set aside 15 minutes a day for slow practice and your pinky will be fine fast.

All you need to do the spider exercises (google or use the search engine to find them), practice hammer ons and pull offs with your pinky.

When i first started, i would finger, say a normal a minor chord, using my 2nd, ring and pinky because i was a pussy with my chord changes and i found it easier, i played like this for ****ing ages, until i worked out that is kinda stupid and restricting and learnt to finger the chords correctly.

But now my pinky feels equal to my other fingers, all because in the early stages i was spending alot more time developing my pinkies strength and dexterity, instead of shying away from using it.

I'm pretty lucky to be blessed with a kick ass pinky from the start i never had any trouble with it what so ever.